BillyBob1
- Champaign
St. Louis Cardinals 2022
IlliniFan85
- Colorado Springs, CO
Sh*t, we aren't scoring tomorrow are we?
To be fair, they are facing Kershaw tomorrow night.
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
Absolute stud! His final season is not just a swan song - he's contributing in a big way!
BillyBob1
- Champaign
They will activate Big City!
the national
- the Front Range
I’m on cloud nine
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
BillyBob1
- Champaign
They will activate Big City!
the national
- the Front Range
What cloud would you be on with a W.S. run?
And this game tonight has gotten lopsided enough, the Dodgers have a position player pitching.
BillyBob1
- Champaign
Bat DeJong!
And now the Cardinals decide to go with a position player pitching in the bottom of the 9th.
They even showed #700 on the scoreboard in Arizona:
I was wrong. I thought he had been pressing. The team had been pressing.
Congratulations to Albert.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
BenFred: 700 home runs for Albert Pujols, thanks to a magic Cardinals season that isn’t over yet
Albert Pujols hitting 21 home runs in 2022 seemed impossible — until it wasn’t.
Ben Frederickson
Let the record show Albert Pujols never doubted Albert Pujols.
Seven hundred? He would need 21 in '22. At age 42.
Impossible. Too old and too late. No chance.
Maybe Pujols could manage to pass pariah Alex Rodriguez’s 696 home runs for fourth-place all-time during this sendoff season with the Cardinals. Maybe.
But 700?
“That’s a big number,” said Pujols after he arrived at Cardinals spring training. “But so was 600. And so was 500. And so was 400.”
And so was 700, barreled off his bat Friday night in the fourth inning of another multi-homer game, the first (No. 699) flying off of Dodgers left-hander Andrew Heaney and the second (No. 700) soaring against right-hander Phil Bickford.
Pujols has joined Barry Bonds (762*), Henry Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) as baseball’s only members of the 700 club, proving once again that the combination of the future first-ballot Hall of Famer and a Cardinals uniform can make the impossible a reality that defies even the most optimistic imaginations.
A PERFECT FIT REDISCOVERED
Pujols packed 445 home runs into his first 11 seasons with the Cardinals, a marathon of greatness that began with a Rookie of the Year season in 2001 and went on to include nine All-Star appearances, three National League MVPs and two World Series championships. Then, a brutal ending, or so we thought. When Pujols departed as a free agent to the Angels after the 2011 season, it left wounds only time could heal.As an Angel, Pujols became human.
Without Pujols, the Cardinals could not win another championship.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Goold: A new bat, old friends, and timeless magic as Cardinals' Albert Pujols soars to 700
With two home runs at Dodger Stadium, Pujols becomes first Latin player to join 700 club on an notable anniversary with a bat handed him by a first-year batboy.
Derrick Goold
LOS ANGELES — In his first season as batboy for the visitors’ dugout at Dodger Stadium, Oscar Ramirez studies the arrangement of bats in the bat rack, so when one splinters at the plate he can swiftly greet the batter with two new ones. He wants to offer the hitter a choice.
In the third inning Friday night as Pujols walked back toward the dugout holding a bat fractured at the handle by a slider he smashed for a foul ball, Ramirez hustled onto the field with only one Marucci model AP5 for Pujols.
“It was in the heat of the moment,” Ramirez said. “It was crazy. I looked for the engraved ‘5’. There were two. Something told me go right. I went with the right bat.”
He handed the magician his wand.
With that familiar flair for timing and talent for giving the biggest stage his best show, Pujols’ next two swings – his first two swings of the evening with that bat – launched himself into the most exclusive club of hitters in Major League Baseball history. The pitch after breaking his bat, Pujols rocketed the 699th home run of his career. An inning later he lofted No. 700 into the bleachers at Dodger Stadium. Albert joins Babe, Hank, and Barry as the only members of the 700-homer club. He is the first Latin player to reach 700 and one of only two players ever with 700 homers, 3,000 hits, and 2,000 RBIs. Hank Aaron is the other.
As he started his 700th lap around the bases, Pujols looked elated, his arms outstretched toward his teammates and the “600” medallion he’s been wearing bobby against his chest. His latest and greatest gust of history came in the first game this season with all five of his children present to see.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Cardinals throw a bash as Albert Pujols’ Nos. 699 and 700 lead powerful romp of Dodgers
Cardinals tie a season high with five home runs, including Pujols’ career 700th and rookie Alec Burleson’s career No. 1.
Derrick Goold
LOS ANGELES – With the bravado and timing that the Cardinals have come to expect from one of the best to ever play the game, Albert Pujols made history – and sparked the present.
The Cardinals’ designated hitter hit the first two home runs of the game – the 699th and 700th of his career – and started what became a power showcase for a team only hours removed from a series of frustrating shutouts. Pujols became the fourth player in Major League Baseball history with 700 career home runs, and by the time the Cardinals had completed their rout of the Dodgers rookie Alec Burleson had become the latest to hit his first career homer.
The Cardinals hit five total in a 11-0 romp at Dodger Stadium.
After Pujols drove home the first five runs of the game with his two milestone swings, some of the youngest Cardinals followed with homers of their own. Lars Nootbaar hit the 19th of his career, Juan Yepez the 12th of his career, and Burleson’s first homer, a solo shot in the eighth inning, punctuated the evening for the Cardinals. Dylan Carlson outfitted the box score with a couple doubles all his own. Including rookie Brendan Donovan’s grand slam Thursday in San Diego, the Cardinals have gone from three consecutive shutouts to a bonanza of power with six homers in their past 12 innings.
Not to be lost in the updraft of power was the pitching performance from lefty Jose Quintana.
Against the 104-win Dodgers, who long ago clinched the division title and are going to have homefield advantage in the NL playoffs, Quintana kept them scoreless through his 6 2/3 innings. In 10 starts for the Cardinals since the trade deadline, Quintana (6-6) has yet to allow more than two earned runs in any appearance. His win against the Dodgers was his second consecutive scoreless start – a span of 14 2/3 innings.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Minor-league report: After struggles, Cardinals rookie Nolan Gorman has multi-hit game
Nolan Gorman went two-for-four with an opposite-field field double and a single pulled into shallow right field on Friday night.
Daniel Guerrero
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mired in a zero-for-13 skid at the plate that included nine strikeouts in three games with Class AAA Memphis, second baseman Nolan Gorman got what he and the Redbirds were looking for during his fifth-inning at-bat on Friday against Gwinnett. Gorman, who struck out in his first trip to the plate of the 4-3 loss, pulled a line drive single to left field on the first pitch he saw.
The single was the first hit of the night for Memphis and Gorman’s first hit since returning to the minors on Monday. On an ever larger scale, it was his first at any level of pro baseball since he doubled in the eighth inning of a Sept. 10 Cardinals road game in Pittsburgh.
Along with Gorman’s multi-hit game, these are some of the notable performances by Cardinals minor-leaguers:
Hits
Second baseman Nolan Gorman, Class AAA Memphis: The fifth-inning single from Gorman was a part of a two-for-four night that included an opposite-field double from the 22-year-old. Gorman’s double hit high off the left field wall at AutoZone Park. Gorman had gone zero-for-20 and struck out 13 times in his last six games between the major leagues and the minors coming into Friday.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Outfield prospect Moises Gomez sets Cardinals minor-league record with 38th homer
Moises Gomez entered Friday tied with former Cardinals farmhands Tyrone Horne (1998) and Felix DeLeon (1962) for the club’s single-season minor-league lead.
Daniel Guerrero
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The breakout season for Cardinals outfield prospect Moises Gomez had another chapter added to it on Friday night at AutoZone Park.
Gomez slugged a two-run homer to straightaway center giving him his 38th home run of the season and making the Cardinals’ minor-league single-season leader in franchise history. The 24-year-old came into Class AAA Memphis’ matchup against Gwinnett tied with former Cardinals farmhands Tyrone Horne (1998) and Felix DeLeon (1962) for most by a minor-leaguer in club history.
“It feels good to achieve that. To add my name to an organization as prestigious as this one,” Gomez said in Spanish on Thursday when he was still tied for the record.
And on his record-breaking swing on Friday:
“I was just waiting on a good pitch to make contact on and it just went out,” he said.
The two-run blast also furthered Gomez’s home run lead across all of minor-league baseball. Gomez finished Friday two homers ahead of Rockies prospect Hunter Goodman and three up on Cubs prospect Alexander Canario, who went hitless in Iowa’s loss on Friday to Omaha.
Crazy how almost everything in this prediction came true:
I loved Albert's big smile as he rounded the bases. He has been professional this whole time (as he always is) saying it doesn't matter, if he hits it he hits it, all he cares about is winning. But that reaction by him tells the whole story, he really wanted 700. You could just see the weight lift off his shoulders. I'm also glad it happened before the playoffs, as I think that would've been an unnecessary distraction for him and the team.
Does anyone know who he high fived in the crowd after touching home?
Does anyone know who he high fived in the crowd after touching home?
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
was said it was Carlos Beltran........I thought it looked like Adrian Beltre............................